This invention relates to the engineering field of cooling integrated circuit packages (IC packages) with a liquid.
In the prior art, many IC packages (e.g., ten to one hundred) are commonly mounted and interconnected on a printed circuit board. There the IC packages operate in conjunction with one another to perform various predetermined logic functions. For example, they may operate as a digital computer, or as a controller for a disk, or as a dynamic memory, etc. In any case, all IC packages dissipate heat; and so some means is needed to keep them from getting too hot.
IC packages which dissipate just a small amount of heat need only be air-cooled; whereas IC packages which dissipate a large amount of heat must be cooled with some type of liquid-cooling assembly. However, due to various manufacturing tolerances, the orientation of each IC package on a printed circuit board can vary such that the surfaces of the IC packages which need to be cooled have different heights and different angles relative to each other. And for liquid-cooling assemblies, this presents a serious problem for since the differences in orientation can cause an IC package to misalign with its cooling assembly, and thereby produce a high thermal resistance.
Also in assemblies for liquid-cooling IC packages, leaks can often occur due to various defects. Such leaks present another serious problem since they can cause electrical shorts and cause contamination. Further, assemblies for liquid-cooling IC packages tend to be complex and time-consuming to install; and that presents a problem since labor overhead must be minimized to stay competitive. For the same reason, a liquid-cooling assembly which is time-consuming to remove presents a problem since removal occurs whenever one of the IC packages becomes defective and has to be replaced.
Accordingly, a primary object of the invention is to provide a liquid-cooling assembly for IC packages in which all of the above-described problems are overcome.